Filter: Kenya Nyeri Giathugu AA

This coffee is part of a 90+ series by Caffenation. We only have limited stock of this coffee and is is expensive, one of the most expensive Kenya’s in a long time. The coffee however is sublime, yielding notes of berries like cassis, but also almonds and brown sugar. It is very very clean, has a light body and a zingy acidity that resembles tomato.

(NOTE: Tomato notes could suggest that this coffee is underdeveloped, however it is a side note.)

Description

This coffee was a surprise on the cupping table this year. We’ve tasted this coffee in the previous years, but never found it to be particularly special. This year, however, it was one of our clear favorites as we blind cupped the coffees. With a distinct sweetness, acidity and aroma it stood out on the table and simultaneously differed enough to make it a good complement to our range of coffees.

The Gathugu factory was originally build in 1984 and in 1996 it became part of the Muga society, which in 2005 became Mugaga. The name Mugaga is derived from the beginning letters of the MUkore location (Kieni and Gathugu), GAchuku location and the GAtina factory. It turned out they had employed a new mill manager, mr. John Mwai Muthee. He’s been managing another mill for the past 5 years and undergone a two week intensive training course on post-harvest processing this year. It shows in the cup. It’s amazing to think that just one person can make the difference between mediocrity and excellence. The cooperative factory (the wet mills in Kenya are termed factories) consists of around 1.000 member farmers, some who are also members of other factories.

Mostly it’s original SL28 and SL34 varieties grown here, that was planted over 50 years ago. The root stocks are huge and we suspect this to be a contributing factor to the very high quality of this region. Older, larger root structures can go deeper and wider and suck more nutrients and water to the tree. The tree itself is cropped to only have two or three primary branches, which grows to a height of 2.5 meters before being cropped again, and new brances are allow to grow.